Content
About the children’s flower gowns–we finally decided that the cheapest and best thing we could do was to trim the gowns with field flowers , buttercups) daisies and forget-me-nots. The children were extremely anxious to have their gowns very flowery. Elsa was inclined to think that they didn’t look flowery enough as it was, but we all assured her they were very very nice, and I really think 15/- is enough to have spent on this absurd amusement. I came away rather early for I had a lesson at 5.
The mayor and I went down into the street and there met an aged party whom the mayor clapped on the back and taking him by the hand ticked off on his fingers all the places to which he was to lead me, ending with Shergat. The old man did not seem to be the least surprised—it is a two days’ journey, you must realise. He tucked up his skirts, made A suitable reply in Turkish and marched off down the street, I following.
The Best New Hard Seltzers Hitting The Shelves For Summer
We marched through it all yesterday and all to-day, a barren region Of volcanic stones and tells. We have sighted but one camp of Arabs in all our Way. A man rode out from it to see who we were and we found them to be one of the half-cultivator tribes from near Damascus. For water we have an occasional rain pool, very muddy, but I still have drinking water with me from Damascus, and bread and meat and eggs and butter, so that hardships have not yet begun.
We saw all the properties, and all the mechanism of the Rhine maidens; we explored the dressing rooms, sat in the orchestra and rang the Parsifal bells! The Grand Duke was extremely cheerful and agreeable–he’s quite young–and of course everyone was hats off and anxious to show us all we wanted to see. It’s a very extraordinary place, the stage; the third scene of Siegfried was set. We shall feel quite at home when we see it to-night. He was much impressed by the Walküre though he says it will take a great deal to make him a Wagnerian.
Pier 6 Seafood & Oyster House
I think I shall have to keep an eye on it, you know, from time to time! I suppose I shall be able to keep an eye on all the developments in the Near East through the Arab Bureau. Much as I enjoyed my little journey I was very glad to get in under a house roof again, for the last few days were verY hot. I found a great deal of work when I returned. It’s not easy here–some day I’ll tell you about it.
I sent back my salaams and thanks and said there was no need for extreme measures as I had made It up with the head of the Custom House. I worked for the next two days at the palaces without so much as turning round. And I never stopped for a moment drawing, measuring and photographing except when Fattuh sent or brought me lunch and tea. It is almost more than the human frame can bear when you have got to struggle through such an undertaking single-handed and I wished several times that the Sassanians had never been born. We did not leave Hit yesterday till one o’clock, having a good deal of repacking to do.
So I’ll be beforehand with my orders, and perhaps Moll, if she is in London, would just step into the shop and see that they are carrying out my requirements reasonably. I went yesterday afternoon, after 5, in an electric launch up the Shatt-al-Arab turned into the new Euphrates channel a few miles above Basrah. The floods are out, and the whole country is under water. We left the channel and went across several miles of shallow water with occasional Palm groves standing in it, derelict villages made of reed matting, and even the reeds themselves sticking up where the water was very shallow. And in the middle of it was a solitary buffalo, knee-deep in mud and water, eating the reed tops.
- Nor can it be otherwise for that’s the part that I have undertaken.
- (In these letters from Rome, Gertrude is again in places too well known to make it worthwhile to give her descriptions of them. I quote however some personal extracts, which show her keenness and thoroughness of study.
- Safely arrived at Kalat Shergat where Dr. Andrae and his colleagues have given me a very warm reception.
- We rode through the mountains, a beautiful road but I was too tired to enjoy it much.
He asked me if I were a Christian and said he was, praise be to God! I replied piously that it was from God. A little higher up we came to great patches of corn sown by the Adwan Bedouins-, Arabs’ we call them east of Jordan, they being the Arabs par excellence, just as we call their black tents ‘houses,’ there being no others.
I have made the acquaintance of all the leading inhabitants of Amman! To-day I attended a Circassian wedding and drank tea with the protestant congregation which numbers 15 families. They were all outlaws and outcasts at Azraq and, as Ali observed, as we rode away this morning “The world would be more restful if they were all dead.”
We rode along together, sometime, but he was on a tired horse, so I left him to come on slowly and hurried down into Jericho where I arrived with a Bedouin at 1–famished. We then proceeded to the Mudir’s for I wanted to find out the truth of the tales I had been told about Moab, but he was out. By this time Tarif and Hanna had arrived and reported the tents to be one and a half hours behind, which seemed to make camping at the Jordan impossible that night.
Rainforest Cafe and the Enduring Appeal of Experiential Chain Restaurants
It is also the last Druze village, alas! The Sheikb and all the swells came to call and took me into the village to look round. I haven’t left them yet, however, for the Sheikh, Ibrahim, is still in my tent door as I write.
- When I came down Fattuh greeted me with the news that one of the camels had sat down and they could not make her stir.
- We saw a great flock of storks to-day and an eagle.
- For Kharniseyeh is one of the markets of Central Arabia and he who holds these holds the tribes, as Ibn Rashid found to his cost and perhaps has related by now in Hayil.
- What is the use of bending all one’s energies to the uncongenial thing?
This is just a little line to tell you how I am getting on. Lizzie and I went out together and did some delightful shopping in Sloane Street and then walked up Piccadilly and up Bond Street and went on myself in a hansom to the National Gallery where I spent a peaceful hour. On the other hand, in some of the letters addressed to her family are references to subjects or events that may seem trivial or unimportant.
But it is not worth while to take up space by accounts of routes already well- trodden, or places and social surroundings well known. In the garden there are big deep tanks where in the evenings between tennis and dinner I often swim in the coldest of cold water. Before we left Teheran when it was too hot to sleep, I used to go out at dawn and swim under the shadow of the willows. We were very glad to leave Teheran though we liked the house there.